All language subtitles for [English (auto-generated)] Exclusive Interview - Aiden Aslin - British Man Fighting for Ukraine, Captured in Donbass, Mariupol [DownSub.com]
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so we've got the camera running here
also in the little camera i'd like to
just
say a couple of words that uh filming
prisoners of war although aiden is i
will say this as it is a mercenary
uh there are protocols governing that as
per the
geneva convention i shall be adhering
not only to them uh given that aidan is
as i say a mercenary those don't
necessarily apply but because
we're all good nice polite people here
we shall adhere to not only
the protocols and the covenants of the
geneva convention
but also this will be uploaded to
youtube so the applicable youtube
guidance ada would just like to confirm
that you're speaking of your own will
there's not been any pressure or
anything like that you are
feds waters
basically that you agree to yeah i agree
to this i asked for this
so this is of your own will yeah
and there's not going to be any coercion
your answers should be taken as your
truthful representation of your actual
position
there's gonna be no exertion of any
coercion or anything anything like that
uh i would like to pass on in the first
case uh uh
that your family have also been
concerned about your sister sharon gates
yeah
and so your mother is it angela yeah
angela
uh have also been very concerned uh
about you so that's been in the in the
media a lot
from why someone to say that you're uh
you're a lucky guy and this is basically
a week in captivity isn't it yeah um
i'd say lucky say the least
[Music]
probably extremely lucky um
to be alive considering the situation
that happened in mariupol
i mean really
basically
if you look at the i don't know if
you've seen the videos i know you've
been quite active
online uh but can you describe any of
the videos you've seen of when russian
soldiers have been taken captive by
ukrainian soldiers and what's happened
to them
from the videos i've seen online of
russian soldiers being captured
um ukrainian soldiers haven't adhered to
the geneva convention
there's been a lot of war crimes after
taking place like from what i've seen
um a lot of it's down to uh the nazi
groups like azov battalion and right
sector
and a lot a lot of nationalists as well
um
from what what i can see see on this
election let's get down to
the nitty-gritty we're talking about
absolute barbarism talking about videos
of russian soldiers servicemen killed by
stabbing them in the eyes
tortured
mutilated
slaughtered yeah by
your colleagues your comrades aiden
i mean come on i i don't promote this
like
if i ever saw anyone doing anything like
that i'll try to intervene because
first and foremost like
just just because it's the enemy they
shouldn't be treated any less than once
once they drop their rifle and then
that's them finished
and i think the people that do do these
crimes they they should be punished to
the fullest extent
um which with the ukrainian military
i doubt they're going to even care about
it
i mean we're talking about i would say
there's no words to describe people like
that but we're talking about ukrainian
soldiers
and i'm going to use a few choice words
to describe them animals
scumbags
barbarians your comrades aiden
what are we talking about here how's
this ended up that you're on that side
i i made stupid choice
i
easily
misread the information and joined the
wrong side
you know you've ever seen i don't even
see a sketch by mitchell and webb
uh they're dressed up in uh in
narcissistic uniforms oh yeah
i've seen that but once i said i said
are we the bad guys yeah
after mario pool
because of my situation during the
operation like we were in mariupol
um it wasn't until this whole operation
started that i started realizing to the
extent of
like the reality of like
ukraine
um
i mean you're a 28 year old man from
nottingham you came over can you give a
little background as to how you came
to join ukrainian forces i believe it
was at the 36th
marine yeah yeah the first battalion
force to marine brigade
how you came to join when
and what motivated you to do that
um so i first came to ukraine
back in uh
february 20
2018.
previously before that i was in syria in
kurdistan with the kurds
and i had met
someone who was previously in
ukraine
and and before this point i was
pro-russian pro donbass i've like been
following accounts such as yourself
since the very beginning
and then when i was in syria i had met
this acquaintance who was also in
ukraine
had a few political debates with him and
eventually like he managed to
like tell me
about like
information and then show me stuff and
then
obviously a lot of it was like
misle misleading information so i i was
easily misled
um so you were at the time in your
mid-20s impressionable yeah in
professional wars now okay
and you ended up but there comes a point
okay then
uh there comes a point that now
you've ended up where you are and
obviously i know you've appealed to the
british government and
it's easy from where you are to renounce
everything
from the position that you've ended up
in but there comes a point you must
accept responsibility for the decision
of course of course the
responsibility must be
accepted um
for me though i'm i'm just saying
when when this operation started uh
the days before it i never
i never agreed with ukraine's
decision to um if you remember uh
russia recognized donbass and lehanska's
independence lugansk
as independent
and
i i'd always wanted it to
just finished and i thought
given the circumstances ukraine would
do the appropriate choice but they
you've been serving for years in the
ukrainian army yeah now obviously you
know you're
socially uh aware in terms of social
media and all the rest of it
so in that time you must have surely
done some research looked on google
checked out the azov battalion for
example yeah you must have seen the the
signs that they wear the wolf's angle
you must have worked out that these guys
are nazis
um previously
we had never really worked closely with
as of like up until we came to mariupol
um
like one when like on a day in mario
pool
was just the amount of uh destruction
and
it was one of the videos i saw one of
the other journalists that was in mario
pool where as of were
driving down the street
like using civilian buildings for cover
like while there's active fighting going
on
um
it was then like i started to change my
opinion
i've always thought they were like like
far right but i tried to
convince myself maybe maybe it will
change for the better
but uh especially after the base was
taken
and like the amount of like nazi
paraphernalia that was like found there
like it's
blatantly obviously they're just nazis
i'm gonna give you the opportunity then
uh
from
brit to brits
uh in your own words
your relationship now and what should
people in the uk know and how should
they relate to the ozone battalion the
azov battalion
which is a battalion of the ukrainian
armed forces
yeah um so for those unaware that don't
don't follow the news or anything
as of italian basically was created in
2014 um i believe
it's its leader um i can't remember his
name
andrei belinsky he's uh connected to
like very like far right like neo-nazi
organizations
um he steps away
officially but
like if you if you look hard enough you
can see like he's actually still in
control
and the majority of the members we're
nazi symbols yeah the chat nancy salutes
the salutes and the uh
the as of uh
the wolf's angel the wolf single
um they wear that proudly um a lot of
the traditions they do is also
traditions from like nazi military
traditions
and that they try to reenact
um
so surely at some point you've got to
where you are where you're in captivity
but you are lucky to be alive and there
can be people watching this from all
over the uk
okay so you've got to where y'all but
surely there were so many steps along
the way that you could have of your own
will said look i'm not being part of
this i'm not fighting with what are i'm
not putting words in your mouth i'm
simply stating objective facts i'm not
fighting with nazis yeah it's just i
just never came into contact them with
them until like twist situation came
into play i was hoping to
to like
finish my contract and go home
to leave ukraine with my wife
but
this war happened because ukraine khan
doesn't want peace
okay
so along the way
you then obviously are in service
military service can you describe your
duties and your experience of combat and
what exactly and honestly hearing what
exactly you've done uh as a military as
a serving member of the ukrainian armed
forces so for the past three years uh
first i was in 137th uh battalion in
35th brigade
um i was in infantry for approximately
five five or six months roughly
um
i was gonna for capita we didn't really
do much because
because of situation on contact lines so
we rotated
um for a few months and then i put a
request in to transfer to the 36th
brigade first battalion
upon arrival i i was put into aerosol
company
we did some training
uh
we did our jumps from helicopter and
then we rotated
to the front lane annually
and then last year i signed a a year
extension onto my contract
with mortar company
basically my duty was to prepare the
mortars
uh and then
give them to the fire
um so they can fire it
um so that's that's what i've been doing
for the past six months uh so for the
past six months you'd be preparing
artillery
which has then been fired yeah and where
has that been fired um this this was in
the village of pavlipo like where we
were stationed so we were firing it at
uh like enemy positions
when you say enemy positions uh hey
didn't you send me positions but we are
now in the city of
donetsk
where for the last eight years ukrainian
forces have been shelling not enemy
positions but civilians yeah killing
thousands of civilians
children
for eight years
so you're telling me
that you think that you were shelling
military positions and yet for eight
years your colleagues have been
openly
in fact glorifying and celebrating in
shelling in killing and inflicting
untold misery and suffering on the
people of donetsk
as i said before
because we were mostly stationed in the
south like i never really knew what the
reality of like the situation was up
here
um
we were mostly based around the public
area
um
one once
the first day of the operation started
um
my commander asked me to well they told
everyone to go to like battle stations
um i i told my commander i'm not firing
i wanted dessert um
he said okay you can go um at that time
it was
pretty impossible so when did you say
you wanted to dessert the first day of
the operation
so this is february 24th yeah and what
motivated that
i didn't want this war
um
i i was hoping previously upon the
build-up like
uh something peaceful might happen um
but that never happened
um
and then once once we were pushed back
within a day we were pushed back to the
village of uh zara
i think it's pronounced i'm not sure
uh mario paul yeah yeah no for mariupo
and again i asked my commander like i
want to leave like can i can i leave he
said yeah you can leave the only problem
was i couldn't find any transport to
to leave
so so what most of this motivated this
you've been serving for years and then
you want to you want to leave but then
you keep fighting on how did i just
can't quite you know believe that
probably if i'm being honest so up until
like six months ago i signed a new
contract like for one year extension
because my my wife isn't make a life and
at that time i didn't realize we'd be
doing another rotation because we'd
literally just come back from one uh
like six months before
so as far as i was where we would be
doing like guard duty and like training
and nicolaite
and then after like two months my
commander told me told all of us to get
ready
to go for rotation
so then that happened
um
and then
slowly like
we had the whole uh incident with uh
like russian politics and like western
politics
and watching this slowly like it it was
like aiming for like a possible uh
scenario of conflict
but
there was always every opportunity that
ukraine was given to like
like uh de-escalate they
blatantly ignored right ukraine had
eight years to recognize the republic um
to recognize the results of the
referendum in 2014. my biggest my
biggest problem with the ukrainian
authorities was the
recognization uh recognition
of crimea's russian territory because as
you said it's been eight years
like
regardless of what anyone thinks tell me
whose territory is crimea russian
and the donetsk and the ligands people's
republics uh
independent like donbass peoples and uh
legansk
um
like
they've had eight years like this war's
been going for eight years
the azov battalion i'm going to hit this
point again
how to describe the azov battalion
fanatics criminals
nazis
okay i mean you're but
you accept that you're lucky yeah i'm
lucky and i'm i'm grace uh grateful
and how's your uh how's your detainment
how's your detention can you describe
your circumstances your situation it's
been good it's better than what i was
expecting it to be um like for the past
like month uh
month and
a half when we were under siege
um
i was basically on guard duty in in our
battalion headquarters because of my
previous attempt to desert
and the reaction of a lot of the
ukrainians that were serving alongside
me were mostly
ignorant or
didn't want to accept the fact that we
will lose this battle which i told them
we won't win like we should just
surrender already
and how did you come to be taken into
captivity so on i think it was last
last monday
um the
the remaining ukrainian forces our
commander came to us previously because
they've been preparing the uh vehicles
with armored shielding
and basically our commander came to us
and he gave us three options he said uh
eva you can
you can try walking out and try sneaking
out somehow
or you can
go in the military convoy which is being
modified with armor and stuff to try and
break through
or free you can surrender to russian and
dnr forces
i chose number three because
i'm not an idiot and i know what the
situation is so you ended up with no
food with no nothing didn't you yeah the
ukrainian military like left us um
my my humble opinion like about
marijuana is we should have left it like
gone left on bus when we were given the
opportunity
but instead all commanders told us to
stay in marijuana
and
do it to the last man which
is uh
reckless
in the uk aiden uh as we've discussed
your family are worried about you'd like
to give you the opportunity to say some
words to camera to speak directly to
cameron to your family um so
diane my wife um i want you to know like
i love you
and
i i hope that the british government is
able to uh push this prisoner exchange
so that i can return to you
and we can build our life in britain um
my my mother my brother and rest of my
family i i also love you and i hope to
see you guys soon hopefully
um if this exchange with prisoners is uh
done
okay
i mean you understand we're out of the
jurisdiction here of the of the british
government you're really yeah as it's
being positioned in the british media
you're being held by uh inverted commas
by bad russians and as i say your own
twitter account is pumping out a stream
of anti-russian bile and hatred as
you're being positioned in sky bbc the
daily mail etc as um
as some kind of um i don't know the
position use
some sort of some sort of a hero who
went to fight for ukraine but now you've
ended up uh been taken by the russians
who were told the worst things about
exclusively
and yet here you are in captivity for
a week
you look absolutely okay to me yeah
decent health
firstly like for people that say my hair
i'm not a hero i try to desert
it's not that's not something a hero
would do
um secondly like
my treatments being good like i've not
been beaten or anything it's
it's been better than what i actually
thought it was going to be like when we
were surrendering i was scared
scared to death of like what might
happen i thought i was going to be lined
up and shot
but it's been quite the opposite like
we've been given food water
um
access to speaking to journalists i had
asked previously to speak to western
journalists
um and they they went through with that
and broad journalist they brought uh
italian jonah this uh graham today
so i'm indeed
thankful for that
and particularly as well i think aiden
to um
to just compare that i'd like to uh i
think really to
get your thoughts on the fact that
your colleagues the the barbarism the
brutality towards russian prisoners of
war what an interesting point is let's
let's be honest here let's say things as
they are that your family have appealed
for russia to adhere to the geneva
convention
technically you're a mercenary so that
doesn't apply to you
however
you're still being treated well
you're here we're speaking you're fed
your waters
etc well on the other side we've seen
russian servicemen butchered
tortured slaughtered
by your colleagues yeah your comrades i
mean how is that how does that make you
feel
um
it it annoys me like because i i did
believe in ukraine
um
but
as i said like after all this like the
real reality of like what's behind like
a lot of the people
who seem nice
uh the the reality of the
their actions has been shown um and
they're not
as good as they say they are um
especially with the videos that that
we've all seen we're talking about evil
here yes this is like stuff that the uh
comparable to the nazis did
when they would capture like prisoners
um and who for you is stephan bandera
fascist i i don't like him i've always
believed he's a fascist and i could
never really grasp why
ukraine
wanted him
like around
did you ever take part in any of the
chants any of the
uh slava ukraine or any of these uh
neo-nazi fascist
that they use we use in in the military
they use level crane as like a national
greeting which was used in world war ii
by the ukrainian insurgent army also
nazis yeah yeah so we we use that as a
greeting in the uh ukrainian how do you
feel about that now
um i don't want to use it anymore um for
me
after this i i
have no care for ukraine
let's say well let's break it down aidan
uh
in the united kingdom the british media
it's categorically delineated down the
lines of
the ukrainians of the good guys the
russians are the bad guys tell me from
one who knows experience of both sides
what's the reality
ukraine's not the good guys if ukraine
was the good guys we would have left
mariupol
our commanders would have told us to
leave donbass
put in
realistic terms they would have told us
to pull back to the lines of uh i think
it's
near
and
just allow
the dnr to
take uh marijuana and the cities
peacefully instead they told us to stay
in mariupol and now if we look at
if we look at marijuana it's no worse
than stalingrad and you know there was a
referendum in mario paul in 2014 the
people overwhelmingly voted to join the
donetsk people's republic but for eight
years they were held basically captive
by the azeroth battalion in a reign of
terror yeah
i'm not putting what did you do no no i
i i know this i i remember seeing this
constitutional facts um
and again yeah um as of as of influence
and marijuana was
massive
like in terms of like military support
that they received from the state
um
it was actually
during this operation
we actually got to see how much support
they got i saw um brand new american
armored humvees
that had obviously been given to uh azov
instead of like the regular military
um who were these guys describe them to
me these uh the azov uh
who no
the ones i had seen when they came by we
we had a few instances where they came
by with the commander to speak to our
commander
um
[Music]
they looked the typical uh like hooligan
like sort of
like build tattoos everywhere
um
there was a couple of croatians with
them
um
[Music]
and
they didn't seem they didn't seem like
they were the normal kind of like uh
nationalists they seemed more far right
because they had like patches with
swastikas
um
i tried speaking to one and he just like
laughed at me because
because i was in the marines
um
i get it all over the world aidan
people are um
going they're being even in the case of
the british government there is of
course a law that i mean eurozone you're
a british citizen with also ukrainian
i'm in process of ukrainian citizenship
you're british citizen yeah uh there is
a law that british citizens should not
take part obviously forbidden to take
part in
in conflict however in the case of
ukraine everything has been waived it's
a free for all and even in the words of
this trust you've been encouraged
men from the uk been encouraged to come
and take up arms
fighting on the ukrainian side what
would you like to say not only to the uk
but to those from around the world
thinking of
coming or rather going to ukraine could
say we're in dunbas this is not ukraine
this is
the donetsk people's republic what would
you say to those thinking of going to
ukraine
to take up arms on the ukrainian side
don't do it you'll be used
um
obviously
to the person that will be viewing this
thinking about going like you'll be
thinking like it's it's someone putting
this into my mouth
but i tell you like now like 100 like if
you go
you're an idiot um like myself like
we were used we were easily tossed aside
one
and forgotten about um
if there's people that think they're
gonna be coming out to be
be the hero like
don't don't even think about coming out
there's no point
um and
the british government need to stop like
uh
need to stop
[Music]
i can't think of the word supporting
stop support stop supporting like like
citizens to go fight alongside the
ukrainians
these are all words in fact to get that
point again of communication even your
own twitter account it is it's not you
that operates no it's very active it's
it's uh operated by a canadian like one
of my old like canadian friends um
i just gave it to him because i i
trusted him to like run it but like
because that's come out with a virulent
stream of anti-russia but from i've told
him i've told him before i like to stop
posting like the anti-russian stuff
because
when even when i was like running it i
hated the uh
i hated the uh
like it's it's not it's not all also
then it's like with the same size like
we should be treated like
non-biasedly
when we're reporting stuff um but yeah i
haven't had an e and to your country
malaysian speak to people in the uk as
they as they look at this what should
they
think of i mean to me i want to say as
it is yeah and they're not good you're a
man that's made a
massive mistake
uh in fact let's take that point it's
easy to to speak your words and words
you're now lucky to be in a place that
your colleagues have been your comrades
have been bombing for eight years
killing untold misery
and death here in donetsk
from those with the same flag that you
were wearing just uh
i will
stay uh a fact here agent it's obviously
not uh not a nice one to state but
the penalty in the next people's
republic for being
you're a mercenary yeah do you accept
that you're a mercenary yeah
what are you aiden i'm mercenary
okay
it is a death penalty
can you
give a reason
as to why that shouldn't apply to you
um
i can't think of any like
good logical reason
uh other than to spare my life and
exchange it for someone that's in
ukrainian captivity that could return to
their family
um
for so i think that would be
one of the good reasons to to keep me in
exchange me for someone such as victor
medvechuk so he can return to his family
okay and what would you like to say
uh obviously i've been following your
case
and i've been following a reaction you
understand a lot of people who are very
angry with you yeah in zomba in russia
i'd like to look to camera what would
you like to say to the people of dambass
um so
i know you you hate me um
and
sorry can only get you so so many uh
emotions but like
it doesn't express like my true like
apologies
for
being being in the circumstances in
which i am
if if i could take it back i would have
i would have left long ago
um but that's not the case
what's done is done all i can ask is
that you forgive me
um
and
accept that i
surrendered and tried to desert
from
the ukrainian forces um i can't think of
much more there is that will
what do you know about the city we're in
the city of the nets because now what do
you know about the city of donetsk
um i just know it's the regional capital
of uh
of the
dnr so founded in 1869 by a welsh yeah
by welshman john hughes um
i don't know too much about the city
itself um
as we were mostly based down south um
city of a millionaire
um you said previously about the bombing
um so as i said because we served mainly
like down south in the marine area
control
i'd never really been to the donetsk uh
like region uh front lines before
um but
at the moment we're here in donetsk and
like in my cell i can hear the bombing
and that's like a big like wake-up call
for me because
previously before you see on the news
like there's
there's some
fight there's like fights taking place
in the next you never you never see like
the bombing
from ukrainian media how much do you
feel that you were misled by the media
by propaganda how much did that
influence your decision to
take up arms with the ukrainian side i
would say probably
70 percent um and then the remainder
would be just my my wife because she's
ukrainian
um
and
yeah i'd say that that'd be correct it's
just and how accurate are the the bbc
sky et cetera the daily mail and their
reflection of
the situations ambassadors in ukraine
daily mail like i wouldn't trust
um by a mile because of
some of the previous stuff they've
posted where they just get information
like straight up wrong
bbc also they're they have an agenda so
one minute they're
one minute they can be uh pro u and then
next minute they're pro
someone else
um
cnn we don't need to speak about them
because that's obvious how is uh the
morale among ukrainian soldiers
um
during the operation
uh once we pulled back to mariupo
for the majority of this operation i
spent in a bunker at battalion hq
because because as i said i i refused to
fight
but from what i saw from the guys in
there
a lot of guys were
ignorant of the situation
and their morale was like normal
it wasn't till the last week when
the airstrikes started getting heavier
on on our position which was in the uh
metalist factory
um that's when they started realizing
that the ukrainian government's like
left us um
i said to them like uh ages ago that
that they've left is like this
like i don't know what you expect for
this to go
um
so like it wasn't until the last moments
that the ukrainians started uh feeling
their morale like go everyone started
becoming silent and realizing that
they're gonna lose which i said to them
was gonna be from the beginning
and what about the uh relation towards
uh zelensky what what was your relation
to him and what's the relation among the
ukrainian troops
um i can't say too much about the
ukrainian troops because i never really
asked him about what they think about
him
but like aft after this like after
madupo like i said it before like he he
left us he he told us
he
in better words is
like look at mario paul uh before
and then look at it now like
if if we had left donbass like
mediupl would still be a city right now
it's
it's graves like
especially from uh
other like journalists who were
following dnr and russian forces
um i saw them giving interviews to
civilians who were inside marijuana
um talking about how
the ukrainian military and as of were
like using like the cover of like
civilian occupied buildings to fire from
with their tanks and whatnot
um
although you know
10 years ago it was euro 2012 yeah
football tournament dinners you're
actually in
what i consider to be one of the the
world's great cities a beautiful city it
was called the city of a million roses
twinned with sheffield actually owned
sheffield
with a lot of words today from a from a
concrete point of view
what would you be willing to do to atone
for the evil that you admit that you've
been a part of how would you how can you
uh propose that you would make amends
for that if this exchange doesn't go
through i'll i would help rebuild
and that that is needed especially after
especially after like
medieval because
civilians there now like there's people
that have no homes they've lost their
families
um
it's good it will probably be ten years
till medieval looks
at least somewhat
resemblance of what it looked like
before so you're physically there is one
option that you're prepared to
physically
atone for the evil that you've done
by helping to rebuild them yes
okay and there is another option that a
prisoner exchange your hope is in a
visual exchange
okay if it were a prison exchange if
that were to happen
what would you then what did you do next
leave ukraine um i've previously
told my wife
to
she she left ukraine because of the
operation and the safety in in my life
at the time
um so she's now waiting to get a visa to
go to britain to be with my family
and i i've already told her like once
this is finished and hopefully i return
um we're going to live in britain build
a family there
and
just forget about ukraine because
after this i don't want to be in ukraine
especially what is ukraine for you now
what does it represent
disloyalty uh
forgetful i i can't remember these words
it's been so long since i used english
um do you mostly communicate in russian
sojou oh i get you i get it um
and broken english as well
um
but in the uk that you understand the
position is unconditional support for
ukraine now you've left london the
ukrainian flag was up in the bt tower in
uh in london
what would you say to the avatars on
facebook what would you say
uh don't promote war
um
sure i think it was a week or two weeks
after the operation was starting
um i can't remember i think it was putin
uh president putin uh proposed a peace
uh deal to president zelinski it it was
two weeks after wanted
and in this peace deal
ukraine made its uh
made its request which was security
guarantees so that if it's invaded in
the future by any country
that it would be protected by
security guarantees
and
uh
ukraine picked its security guarantees
russia said okay that that's good
but then
where the issue came from was that
ukraine refused to accept that crimea
was russian they also refused to
accept that donbass and
legansk
was
independent
and they would rather speak about it
over 15 years okay so we've covered this
point that it was ukraine drove to war
by not accepting the will of the people
of dumbass for these eight years instead
deciding to show them to kill we've
covered that
okay uh let's go down the road of
there's a prison exchange
you're afraid uh all the media because
before you spoke to sky et cetera and
all the rest of it
uh
they covered you you were you know the
the brick fighting for ukraine along
with sean pinner who's
also in captivity let's go down the road
with a pizza exchange i'm am i going to
see are we going to see you in future
renouncing everything you've said today
saying that i was forced to say this it
was you know it was it was dreadful the
russians are you know all of these bad
things that the media like to hear are
we gonna hear you you know walking back
what you've said and saying that you
were coerced or forced to saying this
that's not your actual position i'd like
to
to categorically to really delineate
what your actual position is without any
pressure or coercion and that's
something that is going to be there as a
record of facts
because we don't want a situation later
on where yeah i understand
um
no after this i'm done
i have i have every day
to think
in my head mentally about uh
about what has happened so i have time
to reflect on it and
there's not a part of me that wants to
do anything with ukraine anymore
um
for me i'm i'm done with them like i'm
just gonna go home
uh try to build my life and my wife for
me that's my main priority i don't care
about anyone else like for me you accept
it if that happens how lucky you will be
of course um
compared to uh
some of the other people like uh that
won't return to their families and stuff
like that
i'm
internally grateful that i'm still alive
and given the opportunity to be
exchanged
um
compared to some others who probably
won't have that opportunity or don't
have that opportunity
you've got a tattoo that says happy days
yeah so
as you're as you're now i guess hoping
in the future what would you like to say
to uh you mentioned the
rich government what would you like to
say to to boris johnson
in terms of his unconditional support of
ukraine and
what would you like to say to him
um so boris johnson if you're watching
this video um obviously you're aware of
my situation and the situation in this
area
um firstly i'd like to say is help help
end this war and i don't mean like
militarily i mean like help it be
achieved by peace
um
eight years is a long time for war and
with the new addition of this operation
we need to help finish it so civilians
can return to their lives without the
how should it be finished on what terms
um i think
what what originally what we said before
with like what president putin presented
i think that was a reasonable uh
agreement
um
um
it's reasonable that uh
so dumbass is independent yeah donbass
lagansk and crimea is recognized as
russian territory
that that's a reasonable request i can't
see why they wouldn't accept that okay
and we're almost going to almost get a
video patched if so uh but i will finish
in the last point i'll wait a second
wait a second now i'm going to get
for speaking i'm going to get a load of
hassle yeah i load a stick uh from
people you know saying that uh the
the terrible the evil you know kremlin
propagandist ben phillips
interrogated uh poor asian et cetera et
cetera the horrible you know
uh i'd like to say from from your side
we've we've chatted today from a
nottingham man to another uh
how's it been for you and it's it's good
um i just want to point out he
he didn't get called like
to me i asked like i knew about graham i
asked to speak to him
um because one he's british and he's
also not a good lad
um so it was me that asked like for him
to come interview me
because one is english and i know some
of his work
um
well yeah like don't just jump on the
bandwagon like
looking to the interview that we're
doing now it's
it's legit
okay um can can i add one more about the
exchange for boris absolutely um so
boris johnson uh this is my second uh
request that i need you to listen
um
the dnr authorities have
given the chance for us to be exchanged
and all they ask is that we are
exchanged for
uh victor madwechuk a couple of days ago
his wife oksana madwechuk made an appeal
to boris johnson
to exchange us
exchange me and another british
mercenary called sean pinner
so that
we
so that ukraine can release her husband
so he can return to his family
if if this is not possible then they
would happily exchange us for another uh
ukrainian captive
in uh kiev uh who will have the
possibility of returning to his family
in exchange for us to also return to our
family okay uh and we're gonna wrap up
is anything else you'd like to add we've
chatted for the best part of the night
is there anything else you'd like to say
your final thoughts or words um
it pretty much sums it all up i can't
think of too much apart from uh
how
basically we were just left by our
military
um
did did we cover that
yeah we chatted a lot now and uh
time for you to realize i think that
question relax i think a little yeah
36786
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